Drop shipping may include supply chain management techniques that enable one entity (e.g., a retailer) to sell inventory items of another entity (e.g., a distributor or wholesaler) without physically taking delivery of the inventory items. In one example of a drop shipping process, a retailer receives an order for an item from a customer. The retailer may then place a drop shipment order request for that item with a wholesaler. The drop shipment order request may specify the item purchased by the customer as well as a shipment destination, such as the customer's residential address. The wholesaler may ship the item directly to the customer. Typically, the retailer's profit on such a transaction is the difference between the purchase price paid by the customer when purchasing the item from the retailer and the purchase price paid by the retailer when placing the drop shipment order request with the wholesaler. Drop shipping arrangements may be desirable to retailers because costs associated with acquiring and storing inventory can be mitigated.
Other entities may utilize drop shipping arrangements to meet various business requirements. In one example, a rewards program provider (e.g., a credit card issuer) may utilize drop shipping arrangements to provide rewards to customers participating in the program. For instance, a member of the rewards program may accrue points by participating in various activities (e.g., using a particular credit card to make purchases). These points may be redeemed for reward items (e.g., televisions, cameras, digital music players, and other consumer products). When a customer redeems points for a particular reward item, the rewards program provider may provide a corresponding drop shipment order request to a distributor that stocks that item in inventory. Similar to the wholesaler example described above, the distributor may ship the reward item directly to the rewards program member such that the rewards program provider does not have to take possession of the item.
In the example drop shipping arrangements described above, the entity that submits the drop ship order (e.g., the retailer or rewards program provider) may utilize various standards to communicate with the drop shipper (e.g., the wholesaler or distributor). One example of such a standard includes a particular implementation of eXtensible Markup Language (“XML”) known as commerce XML (“cXML”). The cXML standard may be utilized to submit order requests to a drop shipper according to a process known as PunchOut. The drop shipping entity may operate one or more systems supporting cXML and PunchOut.
While the system and method for order processing state management is described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the system and method for order processing state management is not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the system and method for order processing state management to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the system and method for order processing state management as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.